When: 7-9pm, Tuesday, July 15th, 2008

Where: The Shebeen, behind the Irish Heather, 217 Carrall

How: reserve @ lorraine.murphy at gmail.com

How Much: $15 includes dinner and a drink

What: The Moon Project with Virginia Gillespie

Who: For more info contact: lorraine.murphy at gmail.com

The Shebeen Club is pleased to present The Moon Project with White Rock poet, author, songstress, and maverick Virginia Gillespie. The author of Taoist Inner Tube Rider will be launching her innovative new Moon Project, a year-long, cooperative artistic challenge in which she invites all artists to participate.

This will be a very free-wheeling, possibly musical event which will cross the barriers between artistic disciplines and encourage audience participation.

Bio: Taoist Inner Tube Rider began as a metaphor to describe the Author’s style of writing that has evolved into a book and CD. It is created to bring the words alive and to inspire people to engage with poetry.

Through word, sound and image revelations  are presented as a lyrical journey through time and  as a cyclical ride through nature.

The writing spans four decades. The geographies are desert, forest, waterways, and  sky represented in wind, weather and sound waves.

A woman rides through them all - flowing through vistas and deep feelings to find meaning and purpose.

Meet and Mingle 7-7:30
Presentation 7:30-8
Summer of Love reminiscences 8-whenever

VFS and YouTube have just announced an international scholarship competition that should knock Chris Crocker off the front page and into the obscurity which has hungered for him ever since the Leave Britney Alone fifteen minutes started.

The prize is a full tuition scholarship to internationally-respected Vancouver Film School, the school out of which Kevin Smith dropped to go on to produce the magnum opus, the veritable Big Chill of his generation, Clerks. Like I ever saw that.

I’m old, yo.

Anyhoo. The challenge is to make a compelling YouTube pitch explaining just exactly why you’re the natural choice to win. Anyone with enough self-confidence to go into film should have no problem with this part. The school picks the finalists, and then the viewers on YouTube make the final choice.

Official Rules

Full Press Release (PDF)

A few more details, from the FAQ:

This competition is about making film school accessible to everyone. The YouTube community will award three aspiring artists (that includes directors, animators, actors, sound designers and more) with full-tuition scholarships to the Vancouver Film School program of their choice.

Between March 18th and May 9th, submit a short film, animation or creative pitch addressing the theme “What Matters to You.” You must start your video by identifying the VFS program you wish to attend and you must limit your video to no more than three minutes. On May 20th, we will announce the 10 finalists, selected by Vancouver Film School.

From May 20th to May 27th, the YouTube community will view and vote for their favorite videos.

On May 30th, we will announce the 3 scholarship winners.

What programs are up for scholarship awards?

1. Foundation Visual Art & Design
2. Acting Essentials
3. 3D Animation & Visual Effects
4. Classical Animation
5. Digital Character Animation
6. Houdini™ Certification
7. Acting for Film & Television
8. Digital Design
9. Entertainment Business Management
10. Film Production
11. Game Design
12. Makeup Design for Film & Television
13. Sound Design for Visual Media
14. Writing for Film & Television

Some handy tips:

Be creative. Don’t just tell us what’s important to you – show us. For example, if you’re a director, make a short film or documentary about an issue you care about. If you’re an animator, animate a story about an issue, person, place, etc. that matters to you. If you’re a writer, pitch a fresh screenplay concept about something that matters to you. If you’re a makeup artist, transform a stranger into someone who matters to you. These are just ideas and we know you can do better, but the point is: think creatively!

What gets into the shortlist?

Vancouver Film School will judge submissions based on the following criteria:

a. Creativity and Originality (up to 25 points)
b. Relevance of the video to the particular program of study selected (up to 25 points)
c. Technical Execution: Camera/Sound/Lighting/Editing (up to 25 points)
d. Overall Impression (up to 25 points)

And after that, it’s all up to the community on YouTube, so start sucking up building relationships now!

What: The Shebeen Club Presents: Screenwriter’s Alert!

When: 7:30pm-9:00pm, Tuesday, March 18th, 2008

Where: Upstairs at The Shebeen, behind The Irish Heather, 217 Carrall Street in Gastown

Why: Vancouver Film School will be making a very special announcement of keen interest to all aspiring screenwriters and anyone hoping to break into the business of movies, games, or animation.

Who: Contact lorraine.murphy AT gmail.com for more information. Note that, as this announcement is embargoed till delivery, we cannot give out many details.

How(much)? $15 includes presentation, dinner of bangers and mash or vegetarian pasta, one celebratory beverage, and mingling.

Our March meeting will be of intense interest to anyone with celluloid ambitions. Alice Zhou from our world-renowned Vancouver Film School will be making a very special announcement about a worldwide VFS event of major interest to those with a desire to become involved in the industry.

Bio: Alice Zhou Alice Zhou is a recent winner of Cultural DiverseCity Youth Enterpreneur Business Award, a graduate of Simon Fraser University with a degree in Communications. Her career has focused on Corporate Events Management and Seminars, and she is currently the Events Coordinator at Vancouver Film School. Her passion lies in building relationships and creating a massive network, to provide resources and information to help facilitate additional entrepreneurship. Alice is a board member of the International Special Events Society (ISES). She teaches several Events Management courses at Vancouver Community College, and is a regular columnist in the Vancouver View Magazine. She currently is the event coordinator, public relations and sponsorship coordinator for Vancouver Film School.

7-7:30: meet and mingle
7:30-8: listen and learn
8-whenever: David Mamet/Nora Ephron/Joe Eszterhas three-way cage match! Okay, not really, but you’d pay to see that, wouldn’t you?

Here it is: our very first podcast! Recorded live at our November 20th meeting and edited to death since, this is the book launch party we threw for Colleen O’Connor’s new book Cry of the Phoenix, brought out by her brand-new publishing company, Cat’s Eye!

powered by ODEO

Recording and editing by Dale McGladdery

Click to enlarge: if only the actual book were so easy to read!

Here, ladies and gentlemen, with the permission of the publisher Robert Chaplin, is the entire text of the smallest book ever produced, Teeny Ted from Turnip Town. The book was produced in association with nanotechnologists Dr. Li Yang and Dr. Karen L. Kavanagh from Simon Fraser University, and is so small that when you look at the plain sheet of polished silicon on which it is carved, you cannot see anything but the scratches laid down by the point of a diamond so that the electron microscope can navigate. That is the huge rut in the image above; the finest scratch visible to the naked eye. The eye does not register this thirty-page book, even as a tiny speck. It is an invisibook, unless, that is, one happens to be carrying in one’s book bag a scanning electron microscope, which possibility we at the ol’ raincoaster blog are not prepared to deny on a categorical or any other basis.  We know our readers are a tricksy bunch, yo.

Teeny Ted from Turnip Town is a tale of triumph, a story of success. Ted grows the biggest turnip; Ted wins the Biggest Turnip contest.

Ah, if only life were that simple.

Chaplin points out, rightly, that we do not know the mysterious Ted’s back story; we don’t know if he poisoned the other turnips, if he’s obsessed with size because he’s so short, or if winning the prize won him the heart of his true love. Back story be damned! Ted grows the biggest turnip, Ted wins the contest.

End of story.

The book is available from the publisher (contact him here) in a limited edition of one hundred copies, for $20,000. As it can be read only by those who can afford to have a spare scanning electron microscope lying around, price should be no object.

Suggested additional reading: Leaf by Niggle, by JRR Tolkien.

:: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

Just got confirmation that Robert Chaplin, publisher of the world’s smallest book, Teeny Ted from Turnip Town, will be our presenter for tomorrow night. Once again, here are the details AND the world’s smallest press release!

What: The Shebeen Club : Teeny Tome, Living Large!
When: 7-9pm, Tuesday, April 17 (3rd Tuesday of each month)
Where: The Shebeen, behind the Irish Heather, 217 Carrall Street in Gastown
Why: Celebrate Shebeen Alumnus Robert Chaplin’s publication of the World’s Smallest Book: Teeny Ted from Turnip Town!
Who: Contact lorraine.murphy at gmail.com for more information
How(much)? $15 includes dinner and a drink
 

This Month: Teeny tomes loom large lately. This week, the literary world welcomed its smallest member, as nanoscientists Li Yang and Karen Kavanagh from Simon Fraser University, together with independent Vancouver publisher Robert Chaplin and author Malcolm Douglas Chaplin, presented their minimasterpiece: Teeny Ted from Turnip Town. At 0.07 by 0.10 millimetres, it’s so small you’d need an electron microscope to read it; at thirty pages, it’s still pretty substantial for a dream book about a turnip tale. Small but perfectly formed, this book has made headlines around the world.

The Shebeen Club will celebrate this ironically monumental moment with readings, door prizes and a writing challenge, all specially miniturized for the occasion. Dinner, however, will be oversized as usual at the Shebeen.

Dress code: miniskirts or skinny ties, but please, no thongs.

The Procedure: Sink into a warm velvet banquette and enjoy our programme: your basic meet-and-mingle from 7-7:30, followed by a riveting, yet brief presentation, followed by Q&A and then breaking up into casual groups for wandering, boozy reminiscences of the time you snubbed Jay McInerney in the airport. A fine dinner of bangers and mash or vegetarian pasta from the kitchen of the Irish Heather, plus one glass of wine, beer or pop are included in the $15.

For more information, contact: Lorraine Murphy, raincoaster media ltd www.shebeenclub.com or  lorraine.murphy at gmail.com

:: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

WEST VANCOUVER COMMUNITY ARTS COUNCIL

AT THE SILK PURSE

1570 ARGYLE AVENUE, WEST VANCOUVER

(AMBLESIDE-JOHN LAWSON PARK)

presents

”The Lawyer Who Died Trying”
June 12, 2007~ 7:00pm
authors Susan Smily and Honora Finkelstein

Recent winners of the prestigious People’s Choice Lovey Award for Best First Novel in 2006 and one this year’s nominees for the

Agatha Christie Award for Best First Mystery.

Join us for the launch of their second book!

. EVERYONE WELCOME ~ ADMISSION BY DONATION
The Silk Purse Gallery
1570 Argyle Avenue, West Vancouver
Hours: Tuesday to Sunday - 12:00 pm to 5:00 pm

Information call: (604) 925-7292

Contact: Cheryl Karchut, Executive Director

Email: westvanartscouncil at shaw.ca

Website: www.silkpurse.ca

see also World’s Tiniest Press Release —->

What: The Shebeen Club : Teeny Tome, Living Large!
When: 7-9pm, Tuesday, April 17 (3rd Tuesday of each month)
Where: The Shebeen, behind the Irish Heather, 217 Carrall Street in Gastown
Why: Celebrate Shebeen Alumnus Robert Chaplin’s publication of the World’s Smallest Book: Teeny Ted from Turnip Town!
Who: Contact lorraine.murphy at gmail.com for more information
How(much)? $15 includes dinner and a drink
 

This Month: Teeny tomes loom large lately. This week, the literary world welcomed its smallest member, as nanoscientists Li Yang and Karen Kavanagh from Simon Fraser University, together with independent Vancouver publisher Robert Chaplin and author Malcolm Douglas Chaplin, presented their minimasterpiece: Teeny Ted from Turnip Town. At 0.07 by 0.10 millimetres, it’s so small you’d need an electron microscope to read it; at thirty pages, it’s still pretty substantial for a dream book about a turnip tale. Small but perfectly formed, this book has made headlines around the world.

The Shebeen Club will celebrate this ironically monumental moment with readings, door prizes and a writing challenge, all specially miniturized for the occasion. Dinner, however, will be oversized as usual at the Shebeen.

Dress code: miniskirts or skinny ties, but please, no thongs.

The Procedure: Sink into a warm velvet banquette and enjoy our programme: your basic meet-and-mingle from 7-7:30, followed by a riveting, yet brief presentation, followed by Q&A and then breaking up into casual groups for wandering, boozy reminiscences of the time you snubbed Jay McInerney in the airport. A fine dinner of bangers and mash or vegetarian pasta from the kitchen of the Irish Heather, plus one glass of wine, beer or pop are included in the $15.

For more information, contact: Lorraine Murphy, raincoaster media ltd www.shebeenclub.com or  lorraine.murphy at gmail.com

:: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

Canadian Author MATT JACKSON will be at the Silk Purse Arts Centre, 1570 Argyle, West Vancouver on Tuesday, Feb 2oth at 7:30pm for a BOOK LAUNCH of his latest books “Mugged By a Moose” and “I Sold My Gold Tooth for Gas Money”.  The event is free and refreshments will be served. Call (604) 925-7292 for more info or reservations.

MATT JACKSON

 Prepare to laugh when you join author Matt Jackson for a night of slides, music, and storytelling. Matt will share selections from two new books of short, humorous tales from the road. I Sold My Gold Tooth for Gas Money features extraordinary stories of woe from a posse of unsuspecting travellers. Mugged by a Moose celebrates the tales of outdoor enthusiasts who’ve had wild animal encounters, survived epic storms, and endured other outrageous situations at the hands of Mother Nature.

 Author Bio:

 Matt Jackson is an author, photojournalist and publisher specializing in topics related to travel and the outdoors. His first book, The Canada Chronicles: A Four-year Hitchhiking Odyssey, won the IPPY award for best North American travel memoir in 2004. His work has also been featured widely in more than two dozen popular magazines, including Canadian Geographic, Explore and Photo Life.

Is that a word, “SIWC-ers?” You’re the pros; you tell me!

In any case, welcome to the Shebeen Club blog. We’re an association of writers, editors, publishers, bloggers, book artists, and everyone and anyone else whose world centres around the written word on the page or on the pixel. See the Hinterland’s Who’s Who page on the right-hand side for more information about who we are and what we want from you and the rest of the world. The Nobel Prize for Literature would be nice…

If you’d like to get the advance announcements for our monthly meetings, please leave me a comment saying so and fill out the email box: your email remains hidden, but I will be able to retrieve and add your email address to our database. No, of course we don’t sell, rent, or loan out our lists, so your privacy is safe with us.

By the way, local authors who will be having books come out in 2007, or publishers and editors launching a new magazine, are particularly invited to leave that info in the comments: we’re happy to host you for a reading to help with the launch. We are ALL ABOUT supporting local talent.